cannabisnews.com: Sheriffs are Asking for Armored Trucks
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Sheriffs are Asking for Armored Trucks
Posted by CN Staff on August 11, 2015 at 12:49:48 PT
By Christopher Ingraham
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. -- If you're going to wage war on drugs, you need to be outfitted like a warrior.That seems to be the rationale behind hundreds of police department requests for armored trucks submitted to the Pentagon between 2012 and 2014. The requests, unearthed in a FOIA request by Mother Jones magazine, shed light on how the war on drugs has directly contributed to the militarization of local police forces in recent years.
Police departments can request surplus military gear from the Pentagon through the Department of Defense's 1033 program, which doles out hundreds of millions of dollars in military goods to cops each year. The equipment includes everything from underwear to office equipment to armored combat vehicles. After Ferguson, when images of local cops training assault rifles on peaceful protestors from atop armored trucks flooded the airwaves, the program has come under increasing scrutiny.The Mother Jones investigation focuses on requests for armored combat vehicles, arguably the most iconic piece of police military equipment in the post-Ferguson era. Among the requests Mother Jones obtained, the most frequently-cited rationale for needing an armored vehicle was drugs: "Fully a quarter of the 465 requests projected using the vehicles for drug enforcement," the investigation found. By contrast, police departments rarely cited hostage situations, terrorist attacks or armed gunmen as rationale for obtaining the trucks.At least seven departments explicitly cited marijuana in their vehicle requests, tying pot with methamphetamines for the drug that shows up most often in the documents. In 2012, Sheriff Tom Bosenko of Shasta County, Calif., requested two armored tactical vehicles to be "used during apprehension of suspects in both Marijuana eradications and during high risk search warrant service for drug offenders."In 2013, the Sheriff of Sumter County, Fl., requested one armored vehicle partly because his office had located "several marijuana grows both indoors and outdoors" in Sumter County. Here's how other departments wanted to wage war on pot from the gun turret of an armored truck:Clearwater County, Idaho, has a population of fewer than 10,000 people. It seems like overkill to keep an armored truck on hand for the purpose of "marijuana eradication." This is especially true when you consider that in recent years, the number of marijuana grow sites discovered in the entire state of Idaho can be counted on one hand.But overkill has been part of the drug war since Day 1. Experts largely agree that the harms inflicted by the way we wage the war on drugs -- incarceration, police killings, gangs fighting over black market turf -- far outweigh the costs to society of drug use itself. The Obama administration has been smartly dialing back the rhetoric and policies of the drug war.Earlier this year, the administration even started limiting the types of military equipment that police departments can request through the Pentagon's 1033 program. But notably, armored vehicles are still available. So for the time being at least, your local police department can still request what amounts to a tank to deal with a marijuana plot.Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center.Source: Washington Post (DC) Author: Christopher Ingraham Published: August 11, 2015Copyright: 2015 Washington Post CompanyContact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/4pWN6B0OCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by afterburner on August 28, 2015 at 06:49:30 PT
Good Article
Everything We Think We Know About Drug Violence Is Wrong.
Drug dealers have to be violent. And that's our fault.
By Johann Hari / AlterNet. August 28, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/everything-we-think-we-know-about-drug-violence-wrong?akid=13424.313040.zg_mAP&rd=1&src=newsletter1041575&t=2
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #13 posted by Hope on August 27, 2015 at 18:46:39 PT
Had Enough
Yes, it's always good to see you. It's always good to know you're keeping on keeping on.:)
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #12 posted by FoM on August 26, 2015 at 19:32:49 PT
Had Enough
It's great to see you and we are voting for it even though it isn't perfect. I would love to be able to go to a shop and see all kinds of Cannabis and everything else that would be available to see. If Scott hadn't won a second term more would be happening in your state I believe.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by Had Enough on August 26, 2015 at 16:38:22 PT
Ohio Ballot
Congratulations...go for it...and good luck...Still battling here...Peace
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by The GCW on August 15, 2015 at 04:20:35 PT
Hope,
Wicked?Anyone with a rational mind who examines cannabis prohibition can only consider it wicked. -It's the devil law!Not a single sound mind could come away thinking cannabis prohibition is a good thing by any measure.Cannabis prohibitionists are doing the devil's work.How else could people (including so called CHRISTIANS) support caging humans for using what God created and says is good on PAGE 1?
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by Hope on August 14, 2015 at 21:31:20 PT
In case you think I'm overstepping the mark
about calling prohibitionists "Wicked", let me just mention a very few of the reasons I believe them to be wicked. Very wicked. They are responsible, directly, and indirectly, for many, many morally wrong acts and persecutions that have harmed so many.Here's three recent ones.The Price Of Pot Prohibition: A Dead Teenager, A Violated Woman, And An Imprisoned Grandfatherhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2015/08/13/the-price-of-pot-prohibition-a-dead-teenager-a-violated-woman-and-an-imprisoned-grandfather/The Ridiculous Warrant Application Behind a Fruitless Marijuana Raidhttp://reason.com/blog/2015/08/13/the-ridiculous-warrant-application-thatAnd a few older ones. Rev. Jonathan Ayers. Veronica and Charity Bowers. Esequiel Hernandez. John Hirko. Kathyrn Johnston. Peter McWilliams. Donald P. Scott. Alberto Sepulveda. Gary Shepherd. Ashley Villareal. There are so many, many more.The list is long. All ages. All races. All genders. The prohibitionists have stolen homes and property in the name of their prohibition. They've hurt and destroyed and harmed so many and so much.One atrocity after another. And yet it still goes on.They are the worst kind of wicked. They think they are righteous in their wickedness.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on August 14, 2015 at 12:32:48 PT
revealing
It should be coming into focus by now...this "war" was never about cannabis. It was about the super-wealthy owners of the US being furious about the Social Revolution of the 60's, about losing the draft and the refusal of people to fight foreign wars (Viet Nam), about urban militancy in the 60's and 70's after they closed the factories, etc. About having to pay the lower and middle classes too much.You see, in the early 70's these folks knew they'd be sending all the jobs to China and turning our cities into economic fallout zones. But the federal government was tiny compared to today, and there were all sorts of nuisance legal precedents that gave people civil rights against law enforcement abuses. Look what's happened since. Executive pay has increased by a factor of 10 times over worker pay. We've turned American law enforcement into an oppressing army and built a massive gulag system unlike anything the Earth has ever seen! Before 1970 the cops couldn't come into your house or vehicle, they couldn't use entrapment or confidentail informants to bust people, they couldn't read all your emails and web history with the click of a mouse. They handcuffed criminals while they stood next to their cars, instead of tackling, beating, electrocuting, and shooting them.
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Comment #7 posted by Paint with light on August 14, 2015 at 02:14:09 PT
Forgot to add to post
I meant to add that in that same time period that Ann Arbor lead with the fine, Ohio decriminalized to a certain degree.Ohio was one of the first states to decriminalize.It decriminalized during that 1973-78 period when a lot of us thought legal flowers were less than ten years away.The first leaders were Oregon, Alaska, California, Colorado, New York, Nebraska, North Carolina, and of all places, Mississippi, not in that order.It is interesting to see which of those states still lead and which ones seem not to have advanced at all.I think after 1978 we entered that dark age where hardly anything positive seemed to happen until 1996 when California brought us legal medical cannabis.Now is a different time.Now it is our time, and we are going to finally take back the rights we deserved all along.Legal like alcohol for a start.
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Comment #6 posted by Paint with light on August 14, 2015 at 01:40:32 PT
Ohio once lead the movement
I remember when Ann Arbor lead the way with only a 100.00 fine for possession of less than an ounce.If not the first state it was one of the early ones.FoM has done her part.Legal like alcohol, 1st step.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 13, 2015 at 14:37:23 PT
The GCW
Thank you. We will see what happens on election day!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by The GCW on August 12, 2015 at 21:46:46 PT
FoM,
Look, I'm busy, but I want to chime in:I don't care what RE-legalizing cannabis will generate in $$$.People simply need to stop being caged for using what God created as told on PAGE 1.I don't care for the concept of a few certain people getting a foothold on making buttloads of cash through a monopoly....I believe OHIO will RE-legalize the plant sooner than most. Whether or not this is the time to do it, I DON'T KNOW for I have not kept up on the details...But M....., I wish Your state lots of blessings and hope for the best outcome sooner. And LOVE from Colorado to everybody.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 12, 2015 at 16:30:10 PT
Ohio to Vote on Legalizing Marijuana
URL: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/12/ohio-vote-legalizing-marijuana/31558749/
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on August 12, 2015 at 15:52:21 PT
Some may say,
"What about the wicked cartels and gangsters"?I say they were actually created by the foolish, arrogant... and ultimately wicked prohibitionists that dreamed all this crap up in the first place... to glorify themselves and their comrades... with lies and false glory.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by Hope on August 12, 2015 at 15:45:33 PT
Fighting the War on Drugs...
It's been hard core idiocy... all the way.Truly wicked men and women have done so much harm to so many in the name of their beloved War on Drugs.
[ Post Comment ]
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